Pr. George's Man Charged With Stealing Disabled Parking Placards

At first, the rash of car break-ins around Greenbelt last week stumped Prince George's County police.

Thieves weren't targeting cars with Global Positioning System devices, and they were leaving expensive stereos untouched.

Then a pattern emerged: All the victims were disabled and missing their disabled parking placards.

But police said they weren't stumped very long. On Thursday, officers pulled over the driver of a vehicle matching the description of a stolen one.

It wasn't the stolen car, police said, but inside they found 19 parking placards.

A Temple Hills man, it turned out, had been selling the placards -- which allow drivers to park near entrances and in some areas without feeding meters -- for $50 apiece, said Cpl. Clinton Copeland, a police spokesman.

"People were using them to park, while [disabled] people, unfortunately, were being left out of luck," Copeland said.

Thais S. Miller, 19, of the 3200 block of Dallas Drive has been charged with misdemeanor counts of theft and destruction of property.

Buel Young, a spokesman for Maryland's Motor Vehicle Administration said the state does not track stolen placards but receives "numerous complaints" of thefts annually.